Ray

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The Committment

Arriving at the warmth and safety of Katie’s house, she and her awesome kids sprang into action getting Kane settled in and tending to Sparkles.  As you can see from this picture, Sparkle was a bag of pregnant bones and was completely fidgety, probably because she was not done birthing.  One of the kids got her a bowl of food that she scarffed down, though I’m told that is unusual for a dog in labor.  Then we settled in for the pups that were still to come.
After quite a bit of comforting and trying to get Sparkles to relax, in a puddle of greenish black sludge, Ray began to make his entrance in the world.  It wasn’t easy and eventually Katie had to help pull him out, becoming elbow deeply covered with the above mentioned sludge .
My little green guy!  I was slightly smitten already but there was the champagne colored male who looked to become quite the handsome dog and Ray was soon followed by the only girl of the litter.  I was moderately in love with them all, but even that night, I didn’t know one of these sweet little piggies was destined to be mine.
 See?  He had a green tint.
We had had a dog, actually she was very much Kevin’s and when she went to the bridge, I was pretty convinced that I was a cat person.  Only a cat person.  It had been so long since I had a dog that I interacted with as my own and by so long, I mean decades.  Of course I loved Bam Bam, but she really wasn’t mine so when the yearning for another dog hit me, it started growing along with my desire to help in some way.  To really help.  I wanted to foster and I was pretty sure I wanted to foster adult dogs and possibly elderbulls.  I had spent months reading and researching and was sure I could do this but convincing the family was a different matter.
I had gotten Kevin on board with my first love, the Rottweiler, but he then uttered that fateful sentence that changed our lives, “You know, I’d consider adopting a Pitbull, but it would have to be a puppy.”  He was not completely comfortable with the idea because he was still conditioned by so much negativity in the media, but it was a great sign that he was willing to consider it.  Exactly four days later, December 5th, we had officially committed to one of the “Sparkle pups.”
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It Started with a Picture

It started with a picture, or maybe it started even before that but I like finding the beginning and tracing the path, so we’ll start there for now.  I once had two job interviews in the same day, back to back and I mixed up the times.  I went to the second one first and was hired and accepted on the spot.  That is where I was working when I met my first husband who also came to work there, we married and then we had our baby girl.  If I had gone to the interviews in the other order, what might have happened?  A completely different path.
A non-friend, a person whom I had a slight connection to but had never met, saw this picture of me and sent a message.  She had two Pitbulls that needed to be re-homed, could I help?  I knew SmilingK9’s was pretty full at the time but messaged Katie and she got down to the business of networking to find a spot for these two that we knew little about.  We then found out the female was pregnant and the next message was even worse.  I was at work on December 1, 2011 when the message came, “Sparkle just had her puppies, 6 and 4 are dead…”  and then as I was leaving work, “She just had another baby.”  It was thirty two degrees outside.
When I got there, the mama, Sparkles, was in an open transport crate with three nearly dead pups and the male was chained to a tree with a padlock on his choke collar.  Both the adults were the sweetest dogs I had seen in such a long time.  Katie arrived, took one look at the freezing pups and stuck the nearly frozen one in her cleavage to warm up.  (The little guy survived four weeks.)  We got everyone loaded up and even took the male.  The owner thought she might have a taker for him from Craigslist, but I said, “I think we’ll just go ahead and take him, too.” 
As we drove off, Katie transporting Sparkles, the first time mom and her little frozen popsicles and me with Kane, a male Pitbull that I had just met, freed from a chain and now laying in my backseat calmly as if he had known me forever I could hear my husband’s voice echoing in my mind’s ear, “You don’t even know these dogs.”   I could tell right away, these dogs were sweet.  I might have fallen a little bit in love with the big sweet lug but there was a lot more to do that night.
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Ray’s Ladies

Naturally, every boy’s first love is his mama.  I don’t have brothers that I grew up close with, I don’t have a son, I didn’t even grow up with close boy cousins but the gals at work have sons and told me when we found out Asia was expecting that boys always love their mamas.
Does that translate in the animal world?  I think so.  Before we brought Ray home, Jae and Miko were mama’s boys and BooKitty was daddy’s girl.  All three loved Asia mostly because she is quiet and catlike, so I believe they viewed her as one of them.  Granted, she is the only one of them with opposable thumbs, enabling her to dispense treats.
Ray loves all the family members but as you may have guessed is very much mama’s boy.  That certainly can’t come as much of a shock to anyone, but what came as a bit if a shock to me was that he gave his first pittie smile this weekend.  And it wasn’t for me.  I wasn’t there and didn’t even get to see it.  It wasn’t for Asia, who brings him delicious treats and wears an ankle bracelet with bells, though she did get to see it.  It was for his new love, his midday walker, Asia’s friend Becca.  Becca stopped by to visit with Asia over the weekend and apparently Ray never left her side.  She got him to go potty when Asia couldn’t and as a reward, she earned the big pittie smile.  Oh, they grow so fast.
On another note, Ray also ventured over to Van Wert for a mani/pedi at Emme Lu’s where he was pretty liberally handing out puppy kisses to Heather and he scored some new tasty treats for training.  I found that he gets bored with his treats pretty quickly so I like to have a variety available.  As we head into Tuesday and class, or as I’m beginning to call it, “Ray’s crazyville,”  I know I’m going to need the tastiest and most tempting treats I can get.  At least I can take satisfaction in that he does his proper behaviors well at home, we just need to help him flip the super excited switch off.
What’s on tap for your week?
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Feline Friday

“Did Asia tell you what Boo Kitty did to Ray?”  I thought it was a simple enough question and conversation starter, but for some reason that sent my husband into hysterics, running up to Asia’s room to relay what I said.
Boo Kitty is our oldest kitty.  She is the matriarch of the family and mother to Jae and our beloved ET, who is at the bridge.  As near as we can tell, she is at least 14 years old and though she is enjoying a mostly peaceful retirement, was a hell of a good mouser in her day.  Not just mice, either.  If it scurried, hopped, or flew on the property it was fair game.  Manys the time this little nine pound kitty would be dragging home a rabbit larger than herself. 
These days, Boo is content to find a soft spot in the sunshine to sleep in and have her treats delivered to her in the morning.  She sleeps between us nearly every night and asks nothing more than to not be bothered.

Unfortunately for her, I brought the puppy with me upstairs to ask Asia a question. Asia and Boo were in Asia’s room watching TV, presumably “hiding” from Ray but upon seeing Boo, the tail began to whip and so I let him on the bed under good supervision to attempt to make friends with Boo Kitty.  While he did pretty well, bowing and wagging to her, he also with his possible boxer feet pawed at her.  Back went the ears, out came the hissy face and claws and Ray received a couple of good whaps right across the lug-head before Boo made her way under the bed, voicing her displeasure all the way.
So when Kevin came home, Asia said to him, “Did Mommy tell you what Ray did to Boo Kitty?”